Call of Duty players have had a reputation for behaving poorly for years, so it’s nice to see that the community’s standards are getting better. Even if the players themselves aren’t.
It’s been a good week for professional Call of Duty. Down under, Mindfreak’s players took home US$44,000 last weekend for winning the grand finals of the first stage of Activision’s inaugural Call of Duty World League in Australia. And yes: all the players who went home with fatter wallets got paid in US dollars, even though the tournament was held in Sydney.
Overseas, things are a little more heated. North America’s Call of Duty World Finals has double the teams, so their schedule runs a little longer than Australia’s does. The regular season there is just about to end, so teams are largely fighting to stave off relegation or improve their seeding going forward.
And given how much money is on the line, it’s understandable that players would want to take things seriously. And in the past, players have: such as Team Kaliber’s Jeremy “Neslo” Olsen, who got way, too wrapped up in his victory and the crowd instantly called him out on it.
Lmao @Neslo always killing the vibe pic.twitter.com/qfuiQno0fo
— Marlon (@TBEReX) March 20, 2016
In case the above tweet gets removed, the video’s also been uploaded to Streamable which you can view below.
Call of Duty players have been allowed to run their mouths off in years past, so it’s nice to see that at least the crowd — and Olsen’s teammates — are encouraging better behaviour. The video was doing the rounds on social media again this week, however, but it’s been a good opportunity for the community to further outline the boundaries of permissble banter during tournaments.
Team Kaliber’s management doesn’t have any issue. In a reply over email, the team said Olsen simply called his opponent “a fan”. Which he did: Olsen’s precise words were “you’re going home, you fucking fan”. It’s highly likely that the crowd misunderstood what was said during the moment.
Still, the question has to be asked: is it asking too much for players to be a little more respectful of their fellow professionals? And then there’s this observation, which speaks volumes.
@TBEReX @ArmpitSalad @Neslo you see him thinking, should i say this and he still said it
— SurrenicYT (@Surrenic) March 21, 2016
Update: For clarification, the video in question was not from the recent Call of Duty World League matches in North America although the player and team in question are current competitors. Edits have been made to the above to better reflect that, and my apologies for the confusion and furore created.
Comments
4 responses to “The Call Of Duty Crowd Is Getting Better”
It’s absolutely clear what he said. I hope he gets mocked for it for a long time to come.
Fucking fan? Not much of an insult…
Fucking FLAN is clearly what he says, he’s alluding to his competitors lack of spine and how jelly he is of the neslo….
But then the neslo sounds like the “fag” for saying his competitor is flan-like in that he’s sweet and easy to slurp upon…
Troubling times for pro gaming…
Toxicity over 9k.
Well. The really audible buzz-kill and the instant, unreserved, “Woah, woah… hey…” sounds are kind of reassuring. Even if it was just about the level of aggression on display, and not the words. Sometimes people are hesitant to call out their friends, but this was immediate and confident. That’s good.
That’s how it happens, y’know. Peer pressure. One friend says, “Woah hey dude, you know I know you don’t mean anything by it, but we can we maybe not use ‘gay’ to describe things which suck? My friend is gay and that shit really starts to add up, y’know.” Then that circle of friends stops doing it around that friend and eventually it gets too hard to remember who they can and can’t use casual bigotry around and they cut it out of their vocab to the point where they don’t even notice. Slang comes and goes all the time.
…Like ‘rad’. For a while there, everyone seemed to forget how cool the 90s were and stopped using ‘rad’ until I started bringing it back. Me alone. A one-man trend-setter. It’s back now. Where it belongs. Which is rad.
He clearly says fag…. there is no room for that in this game. Its a real shame. He should definitely be suspended or idk… I’m offended and this should not be allowed.
you’re being sarcastic right? IT’S CALL OF DUTY AKA GAME OF SHIT TALK SO GET FUCKED YA FUCKIN FAG